Green Day Pay Tribute to Oakland Warehouse Fire Victims: Watch

Green Day returned to their Bay Area hometown on Saturday night, where the band sent a heartfelt message to the victims of the Oakland warehouse fire. Frontman Billie Joe Armstrong, who was born in the city, addressed the Oracle Arena crowd with a heartfelt speech via Mercury News.

“When I think of what happened last week at Ghost Ship…the Ghost Ship warehouse. It’s shocking," he said above the emotional chords of their 2004 single “Boulevard of Broken Dreams." "These are friends, friends of friends of people that we pass by on the street every single day, because BART only goes so many places."

Armstrong continued,

"My heart just goes out to all the people that perished in that warehouse. Because these are people just here, looking for themselves. Just trying to have a moment where they can all just celebrate just being artists and being weird and having fun. And all those people. With Oakland, we have to cherish all the freaks and the weirdos. People need a place. They didn’t go to art school. They got kicked out of their parents’ house. And they have nothing. But they find something in this sort-of community, where they weren’t accepted before. So it’s really important that these people have an affordable place to live.”

The tragic fire occurred at Oakland's "Ghost Ship" warehouse during a party on Dec. 2. The event, which is now the deadliest building fire in the U.S. in more than a decade, took the lives of 36 people. Armstrong honored the fallen on Instagram with various photos.

Next up, go back to 2004 by watching a Fuse interview during the guys' American Idiot days: